Too Close to Breathe – Olivia Kiernan

Polished. Professional. Perfect. Dead. Respected scientist Dr Eleanor Costello is found hanging in her immaculate home: the scene the very picture of a suicide.

TOO LATE TO HIDE

DCS Frankie Sheehan is handed the case, and almost immediately spots foul play. Sheehan, a trained profiler, is seeking a murderer with a talent for death.

TOO CLOSE TO BREATHE

As Frankie strives to paint a picture of the killer, and their victim, she starts to sense they are part of a larger, darker canvas, on which the lines between the two blur.

Olivia Kiernan’s debut is a bold, brilliant thriller that will keep you guessing and leave you breathless.

Too Close to Breathe is published on the 5th April 2018 by riverrun, an imprint of Quercus Books. Many thanks to the publisher and Anne Cater of Random Things Through My Letterboxfor having me on the blog tour and providing me with my book for this review.

Too Close To Breathe is Olivia Kiernan’s debut novel however if I didn’t know this, I would presume this was from a long-standing author. This is due to two reasons; 1. the writing is fabulous, it is punchy and authentic and 2. the reader is thrown straight into DCS Frankie Sheehan’s world. The latter point actually caused me confusion at the start – Frankie has returned to work after a non-disclosed incident which had me convinced I’d missed something….I hadn’t and this is a great way to draw the reader in so stick with it!

Frankie has returned to work and has been assigned to the apparent suicide of Dr. Eleanor Costello however upon examining the scene, Frankie spots something amiss with the suicide – this then draws the team into a dark and dangerous world full of secrets.

What I really enjoyed about this read was the authenticity of the investigation whereby costs were at the forefront of the considerations for the investigative team accurately showing the expenses challenge on any police force. Unfortunately there isn’t unlimited resources at their disposal therefore approaches, and unfortunately, investigations have to be prioritised. As such, Frankie is under pressure to get a solid lead in the case before it gets filed as a cold case. This gave an interesting dimension to the book.

There are some dark subjects covered in this book including suicide, abuse, BDSM and the dark web however these threads are dealt with sensitively to add to the overall narrative. This is a complex read that throws twists in throughout to keep the reader engaged and wanting to carry on to find out what’s going on. This is brought to life through the number of unreliable characters!

I look forward to reading more books with DCS Frankie Sheehan as the protagonist as she has a great work ethic and isn’t afraid to rock the boat!

Olivia Kiernan is an Irish writer living in the UK and author of crime thriller, Too Close to Breathe. She was born and raised in County Meath, near the famed heritage town of Kells and holds an MA in Creative Writing awarded by the University of Sussex. Olivia’s second book, The Killer In Me, will publish in April 2019.